The 37th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards

Kate Beckinsale, Isabelle Huppert and Naomie Harris won awards on the night. Photo by Dave Bennett/Getty

Rich Cline

The UK’s leading critics spread the love among a range of films at the 37th Critics’ Circle Film Awards on Sunday night at The May Fair Hotel in London. Hosted by actor-filmmakers Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, the star-studded black-tie ceremony saw Damien Chazelle’s musical La La Land crowned Film of the Year, with top prizes going to films from Ireland, France, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Australia and the USA.

In a surprise move, Director of the Year was won by Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Nemes for his Oscar-winning drama Son of Saul. Screenwriter went to Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea, which also won Actor of the Year for Casey Affleck. Moonlight was presented with both supporting acting categories, for Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali, who tied with Love & Friendship‘s Tom Bennett. Bennett’s costar Kate Beckinsale was on hand to claim the British/Irish Actress prize, while Andrew Garfield won British/Irish Actor for his performances in both Hacksaw Ridge and Silence.

Iconic French actress Isabelle Huppert also took home two awards. She was presented the prestigious Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film before going on to win in the Actress of the Year category for her performance in Mia Hansen-Love’s Things to Come.

Maren Ade’s acclaimed Toni Erdmann added to its global accolades as it was named Foreign-Language Film of the Year, while Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea took the Documentary honours. And Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake won The Attenborough Award for British/Irish Film of the Year.

Other winners included A Monster Calls‘ 14-year-old star Lewis MacDougall, named Young British/Irish Performer of the Year, and writer-director Babak Anvari, who won The Philip French Award for Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker for his feature debut Under the Shadow. Cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grovlen claimed the Technical Achievement Award for his bravura work on the one-take German thriller Victoria.

For the fifth year running, The May Fair Hotel hosted the event, with winners Beckinsale, Harris, Loach, Bennett, MacDougall and Anvari among an array of stars on the red carpet. Guests at the ceremony included George MacKay, Emma Greenwell, Morfydd Clark, Mica Levi, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Sennia Nanua, Ben Cohen, Kristina Rihanoff and filmmakers John Carney, Otto Bell and Mia Hansen-Love.